Primary
''obeisance'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260904134559-00-⌔
obeisance - Wiktionary, the free dictionary
English
Noun
obeisance (countable and uncountable, plural obeisances)
- Demonstration of an obedient attitude, especially by bowing deeply; a deep bow which demonstrates such an attitude.
- ✤ In there stepped a stately raven of the saintly days of yore;/Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he;1
- ✤ But looking upwards in the blaze of the moon I suddenly saw colossi sitting near, and towering up and blotting out the stars and filling the night with blackness; and at those idols’ feet I saw praying and making obeisance kings and the days that are and all times and all cities and all nations and all their gods.2
- ✤ The situation in the case of actions which are non-linguistic but similar to performative utterances in that they are the performance of a conventional action (here ritual or ceremonial) is rather like this: suppose I bow deeply before you; it might not be clear whether I am doing obeisance to you or, say, stooping to observe the flora or to ease my indigestion.3
- An obedient attitude.
Etymology
From Middle English obeisaunce (“obedience, obeisance”), from Old French obeïssance, derived from obeïssant (“obedient”), participle of obeïr (“to obey”), from Latin oboediō, obēdiō; ob- (“to, for”) + audiō (“to hear”). Cognate with obedience.
Pronunciation
Printed 2026-09-04.
(echo:: @ ⌗)
Link to original Footnotes
1845 February, — Quarles [pseudonym; Edgar Allan Poe], “The Raven”, in The American Review , volume I, number II, New York, N.Y.; London: Wiley & Putnam, […], →OCLC: ↩
1915 April, Lord Dunsany [i.e., Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany], “Alone the Immortals”, in Fifty-one Tales, London: [Charles] Elkin Mathews, →OCLC: ↩
1962, J. L. Austin, How To Do Things With Words, OUP paperback edition, page 69: ↩
Secondary
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